Tuesday, 30 October 2012

So, I shared last week Wednesday that I was going to be participating in the Pinterest Challenge. Then I promptly went "off the air" for three days, only to reappear yesterday with comments stating that I completely lost track of taking pictures for the October Dress Project last week... Get where this is going? Yeah. I really, really did want to take part in the fantastic challenge started by Sherry of Young House Love, and Katie of Bower Power - but things were just so darn hectic last week... it didn't end up happening. I blame the crazy fantastic party on Friday (which I have yet to share pictures of, but I will! I promise!), the fact that my dear friend Lana is back in town, and all of the other people that filled up my house and my life in the past seven days. Seriously. I cannot say it enough times. We had people over every. single. night. last week. So much love and friendship and pieced together family-ness. I wouldn't have traded it for anything, but so, so busy.

That being said, I did manage to squeeze in some fun little projects to keep my update-house-and-be-creative streak going, including making some more art for the master bedroom walls. I picked up two canvases from the Dollarama. I wanted two chunky square ones, but they unfortunately didn't have any... so I might have to eventually moved these to another place and pick some like I really want from Michaels, or a similar store, but for now they work.

I grab my classic favourite painting colours - sea blue, cream, light purple, dark purple - and a stamp for the first one. After giving the whole canvas a background with the stamps, I squirted dots of paint onto the board, and I went to town...

Not literally - that's just my new "saying" right now. What I meant was that I started painting. I went for chunkier, bigger streaks and just moved the paint around until I liked it. I realized as I was uploading these pictures, that I actually don't have any shots of the "finished product". But they're hanging in the bedroom - and Derek's asleep in there, so I'll have to share them another time.

For the second one, I painted the canvas entirely with pale purple, and decided to make some geometric shapes with the dark purple. Unfortunately, like the other painting, this is actually in the middle stage - not the finished stage, so I'll have to get back to you with a shot of them hanging up.

I ended up liking them, and they definitely bring a bit more life to the room. I hung them on the opposite side of our closet, so they balance out the other art that I've shared (the paint chip art that ended up being Fantastic and Free project #12). There's still tons of work to be done, but we're really excited about the little things that we're accomplishing. And we're totally okay with taking it slow. Other than the water in the basement. Seriously. We should not be taking that slow. Really need to get on calling a plumber - news flash, for anyone who doesn't know us all that well, Derek and I are so.... sooooooo slow at getting things done. Example: I didn't get my first piece of ID with my married name on it until last week, exactly five months after the wedding. Yep. We're those people.

Monday, 29 October 2012

Well, it's been a few days. I'm sorry for missing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday's posts! Things have been incredibly busy here for the past week. We had people over every single night last week (except for Saturday, when the two of us just crashed!). But I'm back with week four (the last full week!) of the October Dress Project (here are week one, week two, and week three). I'll have to admit it now, though, that actually most of these pictures were taken this afternoon - I just threw on what I'd worn on each day, and cycled through the ones I'd missed. Like I said, things have been crazy.

October 22nd (I told you I was in love with that scarf! Wearing it again, with jeans. The dress is so short now that I don't feel comfortable wearing it without some form of leggings or pants... and besides, it's been below freezing for most of this week!):

October 23rd (Not my best, nor my most creative day, but I wore some cute polka-dot tights that I picked up with Lana - she got the same pair, and we also picked up the same tights: me in teal, and her in red. I swear, we're not the same person):

October 24th (Teal tights = love. They're great. Make me feel super spunky. Lana, Vickie, and I had a party together that evening. It was great. We had a blast hanging out again!):

October 25th (Feeling not very creative. I ended up doing a sort of shawl with my white scarf. It looked better on the actual day, but I was in a hurry to re-create half of the week's outfits, so in the picture it didn't turn out too fantastic. Ah well. I'll get by.):

October 26th (Lana, Derek and I hosted a Halloween party on Friday. It was crazy, and intense, and Lana and I literally worked on it all day. I got up at 8:00, and didn't stop until 1:00 in the morning. The theme was Arsenic and Old Lace - after the play - so Lana and I dressed up as old women. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture from the actual day, and in the hecticness of it all, I lost a few of my costume pieces. Just imagine that I'm wearing old lady glasses, jewelry, terrible makeup, and cheap tights full of runs. It was wonderful, believe me):

October 27th (The day following the party. Derek and I literally did nothing. Seriously. We slept in, and then spent most of the day sitting on the couch in the living room. It was amazing, and so, so needed. We were both dead tired! My outfit reflects the tiredness and therefore the lack of creativity):

October 28th (Sunday, and church. Teal tights again, because they're just that awesome):

Week number four is done. It was definitely way more difficult this week to come up with new outfits, and clearly much more difficult to be dedicated taking pictures! But, there are only three days left (including today), so I'm determined to make them fantastic! Though, honestly, today's outfit really isn't that great. I'll share the pictures from the last three days on Thursday (Wednesday is the last one).

Note: You can read more about the project in this blog post which also includes links to the Facebook group, and the blog of the creator of the October Dress Project.

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

So, everyone, welcome the Pinterest Challenge! The Pinterest Challenge is for anyone who uses Pinterest (and for anyone who's interested in starting it) to stop pinning and start doing! Basically, you pick something from your Pinterest boards and go to town with making it. This is not something sponsored in any way by Pinterest, but rather started by two of my favourite bloggers, Sherry from Young House Love, and Katie from Bower Power. Seriously, you ought to go check out their blogs. They make me wish for more creativity!

Every season, they - along with two guest hostesses - pick one week, and put on their creative hats to get their favourite pins into real life. There's only one rule: do your own personal take on something on your boards and link it back to the ORIGINAL source (not the pin!). On Tuesday morning (the 30th), all of us challengers (including those who are a bit less than successful! The good, the bad, and the ugly are all invited to join) will submit links to the things that we've done - whether its to Sherry at Young House Love, Katie at Bower Power, Sarah at Ugly Duckling House, or Carmel at Our Fifth House. And if you're participating, I'd love to see your pics! You can them to me at c.tikvah@gmail.com.

As for what I'm doing, well, you all know that I love me some natural textures and shapes, and when I first saw this on Pinterest, I fell in love! This challenge is the perfect time to do my own twist. Presenting a DIY sisal rope bowl, from Kate at Censational Girl.

So stay tuned for more details about my project, and definitely, definitely be sure to check out the lovely hostesses sites. They're fantastic, I assure you. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

I know this is another late-night post, but you'll have to excuse me! I've made a decision to avoid being on the computer during the day, and as Derek and I manage to stay fairly busy during the evenings (especially now that Lana's back!) I have to squeeze in writing these guys whenever I can. Aka, 10:45 tonight! But they do say that creativity is the strongest after 10:00! Something about parts of your brain shutting down... or something.

I'd like to share with all of you a recent purchase Derek and I made at 10,000 Villages. For any of you who haven't heard of them, they're a Fair Trade organization that sells artisan-crafted accessories home décor coffee, and clothing. They're part of the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) and the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches. I'd heard of them before I came to Manitoba, but since there's a shop right in Steinbach, I've become a lot more aware of who they are and what they do since I moved here almost three years ago. As I mentioned in yesterdays post, Derek and I received a gift card from them for our wedding, and on Saturday, we decided to use it. We spent part of the card on a gorgeous white scarf - made in India. And we used a bit more of it to purchase a lovely capiz shell frame - also made in India.

After purchasing the frame, I wasn't sure where to put it. The living room was of course an option, but considering how much work we've already done to decorate that room (including banners, streamers, and bows from last night's welcome home party for Lana!) I thought it might be time to give a different room some of my well-deserved attention! I ended up putting it in the bedroom, but had to do a bit of rearranging first. You might notice that in most of the pictures I share, that our house seems to be clean, organized, etc. Well, for any of you wondering, I assure you that 90% of the time, it looks nothing like the pictures. I might not be as messy as I was in highschool, but things sure pile up quick!

The dresser in the corner of our bedroom was one of those places where things piled, so I gave it a bit of a redo. Imagine it covered in jewellery (now in the silver box), scarves (back in the closet where they belong), and all kinds of random junk that hadn't been given a place to live yet (either found a home, or just ended up in the baby-eating-office. Either way, it's no longer an eyesore, and the clean up provided me with a nice little station where I can do my makeup in the morning and where we can keep the things we use every day, while looking at some of the nice décor - instead of a pile where you lose things super easily.

And here's a close up on the frame. Don't mind the sad looking girl in the shot. We're waiting on wedding pictures.Oh, and in this closeup, you can also see my vase with my candle. That's rice in there for anyone who's wondering. It's a great, and cheap filler. The vase and the candle are actually from the Dollarstore, so in total that little project was only about $4. Really nice to be able to put something together for cheap, eh?

Monday, 22 October 2012

We've made it to week number three (read about week one and two, here and here), and can you imagine, Lana and I are still both creating outfits that, while similar to previous ones, are still individuals. It's amazing what you can come up with when you are forced to wear the same main wardrobe piece day after day after day. I know for me, for the most part I'm surprisingly not sick of the dress yet. I've definitely being a lot more creative with it than I was last time I participated in the challenge. Maybe it helps that I'm forcing myself to share my outfits with the whole world - the whole world being about 30 people in my case.

October 15th (simple and cute, with pops of colour in the earrings and shoes):

Oct 16th (I decided to try something a bit different, in wearing a longer, looser shirt over the dress. I also pulled that scarf out of my closet - it's one I really, really like, but I often find myself passing it up for something a little less bold. It was good to use it again):

October 17th (Trying at creativity again, I tucked the dress up, and turned it into a shirt. I really liked how it turned out. I also decided to do something different with my hair, which I ended up absolutely loving. Too bad the happy accident happened on a day when I just stayed at home!):

October 18th (though this is the outfit I wore that day, we actually took the picture on Saturday - the 20th - because we forgot on the Thursday. So, for those of you keeping track of my hair-down-challenge, I had it down on Thursday; there's just no record because we forgot to take a picture, which I'm completely okay with because I didn't really love the outfit, and my hair was incredibly challenging. The awkward pose in this picture is because I washed the dress Thursday night, and it shrunk again, so I'm pulling it down for this shot. I really gotta try the trick for stretching things out again....):

October 19th (Friday - with class. I tried my fantastic hairstyle from the 17th, but it completely failed. Why is it that I can accomplish an awesome hairstyle once, and then never again? *sigh* But that was alright, because I actually really liked my outfit - belted cardigan over a button up: simple but sweet):

October 20th (throwback to day one with my awesome home-made necklace, but different with the belt, the boots, and the different leggings. I also put my hair in a side ponytail which I absolutely adored. I will have to try it again and hope that it works better than my second attempt at day 17's hair. I'm so excited that my hair is long enough to start doing side ponytails! Mission grow hair accomplished!):

October 21st (church and stuff. That gorgeous white scarf that I'm wearing is from Ten Thousand Villages. Derek and I were browsing there on Saturday - with a gift card we had from our wedding - and he was looking at the scarves, and suggested I get one. I told him that I was waiting to find a white scarf before I bought any other ones. So he shrugged, and we kept browsing, and I found something that I decided to buy - I'll share the details probably tomorrow! - and as I was checking out, Derek called me over, to where he was standing with a beautiful white scarf. It was exactly what I'd been looking for! Calling it destiny, I bought it, and now I never want to take it off! In fact, I'm wearing it again today):

So, that's week number three. Still amazed that we're both going strong. Lana is back here in Manitoba with all her clothing, so she's pretty pumped about that - more options are always a plus. Though, actually, Lana and I are talking about next year combining the October Dress Project with the 30 for 30 project. Essentially the 30 for 30 project involves picking out thirty articles of clothing and only using those to create outfits for thirty days. So, with our dresses as our base, we'd pick thirty items (including pants, sweaters, shirts, shoes, etc.) and create thirty different outfits - one for each day of October. We feel that doing that would reflect the anti-consumerism and pro-creativity ideas behind the October Dress Project even more. So I guess we'll see what happens?

Note: You can read more about the project in this blog post which also includes links to the Facebook group, and the blog of the creator of the October Dress Project.

Saturday, 20 October 2012

So I didn't end up writing a post yesterday, which is actually rather unfortunate. My day was pretty insane though, and it ended in the most spectacular way. My dear friend Lana has been living in Alberta since right after our wedding (I think she left for Banff the day we got back from our honeymoon?).

She was working at a resort, in the mountains, called Johnston Canyon. But she left at the beginning of June, and she wasn't coming back till the end of October. So, that's a good five months right there. She came back once, for our other friend Anja's wedding (that's Lana on the far left):

But since she was here for a wedding, she spent most of the week helping the bride. While I spent most of the week working at Tim Hortons. Good times. Then back in the middle of September, I flew out to visit her. Of which I have no photographs, because apparently Lana and I don't take pictures. I stayed for a week, and it was fantastic. We chatted and giggled and also spent time not doing anything - but together. Kinda like when we lived together. Derek can tell you that for the past two or three weeks, I've been giving him a daily (or hourly, depending on my mood) countdown until she came home. He thought it was adorable. Which is good, because if he didn't, he probably would have thought that it was annoying...

Anyway, Lana had told me that she was coming home on Sunday, though she refused to tell me who was driving her from the bus station to Steinbach, and where she was staying once in Steinbach. Which I thought was odd, but I didn't think much of it. I definitely didn't even imagine that she might be coming home early - until yesterday morning at school, that is, when Thomas, Raymond, and I were discussing her return, and Professor Terry came into the conversation saying that he was expecting her to be at their house that evening. Imagine my shock and surprise!

Well, of course, Thomas and I decided to turn the surprise around on her. We'd be waiting at Terry and Luann's for her when she got there. Ha! Thomas seemed a bit upset, but when we conversed about it, he just seemed to be upset that she hadn't told him she'd be home early.

So, 10:30 rolled around, and Derek and I hid out at Terry and Luann's. Thomas said he'd be there in a bit - that he'd meet us there. He had some stuff to do at home. Eventually Terry and Luann got back, maybe around quarter to 11. And Luann let us know that Lana had texted her saying that the bus had been late. So, we waited. Which wasn't all that bad, because it meant that Derek and I had a chance to catch up with Terry and Luann - with whom Derek lived for nine months before our wedding. As the clock ticked past 11, I realized that Thomas still wasn't there, which I thought was odd. And that's when Terry and Luann informed me that Thomas had hoodwinked me too - he was Lana's transportation to Steinbach.

When they arrived at 11:30(ish), Derek and I leaped up and yelled surprise, of course. And Lana - who knew that I was going to be there through Thomas - was just as excited to see me as she would have been if her pre-planned surprise had worked out. We stayed up till almost 2:00 at our house, after hanging out a bit at Terry and Luann's, and I bought her ice cream. And now, as I write this, I'm excited to get to see her again today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. And so on (we have plans to see each other almost every day this week. Crazy.) So that was my yesterday (minus a midterm, a doctor's appointment, Derek making us personal lasagnas for supper, me making a mess of the living room in an attempt to craft a cute card, etc).

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Anyway, post number 60! Woo. I'm accomplishing things here, folks. And because there really wouldn't be any point to me writing this blog without all of you (30 or so people) to read it, I want to give a huge, big thanks to you all. You have no idea how much I appreciate your comments and seeing that people are interested in what I have to say. Seriously. Love you guys.

I also want to say thank you for your prayers in regards to the water issue we've been having in our basement. It's nowhere near fixed, so keep 'em coming, but I did want to share a little update on the matter for which Derek and I are both incredibly grateful. The water does not appear to be coming in from outside! Or at least not most of it! Huzzah! Party! Balloons! Etc! (Hence the unfortunate reference to a song - and a style of music - that Derek and I really don't listen to. Ever.)

I've been doing a bunch of Skyping with my Dad/taking pictures of random things in the basement/observing the water for the past couple days. For anyone who doesn't know my dad, let me say again that he is amazing and is one of the handiest men I know. So, he can help solve problem even an entire province away! Essentially, he put forward the idea that we had a backed up drain and/or leaky plumbing. And today, as I observed the water in reference to the water consumption in the house, we realized that that's probably the case. The biggest (and probably most exciting) discovery was that after I did a load of laundry, the water on the floor was sudsy. As in, not from outside. Considering that outside is less than sudsy. Also, the expansion (and retraction) of the water seemed to be following our water use way more so than the weather outside - for instance, the fact that there was a ton of water down there after a couple days of very dry, warm weather, and now, even though it's been raining straight for two days, the water keeps going away (and coming back, but it comes back after we've taken a shower, or done the laundry). All I can say is if it's related to the plumbing, I'm sure glad it ain't related to the toilet's plumbing! That'd be nasty. *disgusted tongue stick out/shiver*

So all that to say, that we're really happy that it's something so much less difficult to deal with RIGHT NOW than water coming in from outside. Of course, we'll still have to get a plumber in to take a look/see if they can unplug the drain. So if any of you Steinbach people happen to know a plumber who would give a discount to two poor, newly-wed folks, let me know!

Again, thank you for all your prayers, and keep 'em coming as we try to sort this out. Oh, we love our quirky little home.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

A couple days ago I shared pictures of the various frames/artwork that I've managed to put up since Derek and I moved in, and I thought I'd let you folks in on quick (and technically fantastic and free!) project that I did to upgrade one of the frames.

This is the picture that I shared of the frame Derek's brother, Jeremy, and his girlfriend, Adrienne, gave us for our wedding. Clearly the people in the pictures are not us, but we'd been waiting for some wedding pictures to fill those, so it was up on the wall - though rather unpersonalized.

So, I decided I'd do some work to get it more personalized, until we could put some wedding pictures in - or if I liked it enough, I'd consider just leaving it as is. I started by tracing the filler pictures onto this fantastic paper that I have from Stampin' Up. After cutting out the pieces, I googled the letters "D" and "C" and the ampersand symbol.

I traced them onto the paper with pencil. Here's the outline of the "C" that I used.

Then I started filling it out with black pen.

And once it was all filled out (and dry! because I used a gel-type pen), I erased the pencil markings.

With the new art added to the frames, I put it back up on the wall, with my votives ($1 each from Chapters!)
and one of my toilet paper tube flowers. In the end, I've found myself torn. I lurve the way the "C" and the ampersand turned out, but I really don't like the "D". Maybe someone (my dear friend, Amanda, for instance?) would be willing to design me a "D" with a similar pattern to the "C", or would that be far too feminine for a letter meant to represent Derek? I'm also finding that there's a lot of black and white (or rather off-white) going on in the arrangement, and I feel like it needs some colour, so I might be trying to find a way to add that in. Painting the inside of the votives? Painting the flower? Colouring the ampersand something bright? Switching out the paper for another kind (oh please no! Drawing that "C" took absolutely forever!)?

So, there it is, a project that I've done that I'm not quite satisfied with. Any of you have that experience? High hopes for something, but then the execution of it fell just a little flat? Never a fun experience, me thinks! But share the deets and let me know I'm not alone!

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

So this is the post that I was in the process of writing when, this evening, I realized that I should probably get on that supper thing, headed down to the basement, and this happened. And while that was tons of fun (third measurement unit I've used in reference to that post! Check out the first two in the title of that post... I'm so cool, I know) lets move on to something a little bit less traumatic.

From previous posts you may have noticed that I'm a fan of decorating for the season - specifically fall, since that's the season we're in. While my living room has been lucky enough to be the focus of the majority of my decorating (it's the room we're in the most), there was a sad little end table/cabinet thing (which is actually the table I mentioned way back in January in one of my first posts! - here) that was actually storing all my not put away decor items as you can see in my house tour video here. But since I went out to do some shopping on Saturday, I picked up a few things and I've slowly been incorporating them into my house. And as I was doing that, this happened!:

At Superstore, I picked up some fall-esque potpurri (in coconut and lime scent. love it.) and a set of four fake pears (for $6 - that's $1.50 a pear, which I think is a great deal, considering the Dollarstore didn't have any faux fruit!). I had plans to paint the pears white, and get the whole ceramic look thing happening. However, as I was staring at my collection of newly-purchased items, I was thinking to myself, I really wish I could throw these potpurri pine cones in a glass bowl, except I don't have any glass bowls... but then I remembered that I totally did (wedding present of glass mixing bowls for the win!) and I grabbed the largest and decided to throw a few pears in (with the pine cones) and then I ended up throwing some more of the potpurri in as well. I moved some items around and collected a few things from around the house (the candle-pebble tray that was on my coffee table, a scrap of burlap, our guest book, a toilet paper tube flower). It definitely took some playing around, but I really love the way it turned out. And even though I'd originally been planning to paint those pears white, I'm really loving the bright splash of green against the celery green table.

As for our coffee table, it also got some different decoration - a leaf garland, glass bowl, and candle from the Dollarstore, and some of the potpurri from Superstore. I love that $4.00 can create such a new and different centrepiece (the bag of potpurri was $10, but since such a small amount of it is in this container, I think it only amounts to about $1 worth).

And as an added bonus, I discovered this little guy crawling around on my wall. Cool. I like ladybugs. It's like he's living here too. Hanging out at my house. Escaping the freezing temperatures of Manitoba fall - which are ridiculous by the way.

Well, I do have another post to share this evening (will probably end up writing it after getting back from church this evening), but since I'm writing about my life, I figured I'd let you in on something a bit more frustrating that we've discovered about our house. I mentioned here that we'd discovered that our house did a bit more than "seep" water into the basement (as was mentioned by the previous owners when we bought the house), but I haven't really mentioned it since. Well, since that post, we've been seeing the water do weird things. For the first few days, it would mysteriously shrink to almost nothing, then appear full blown again the next day. After that it seemed to be steadily going away, but this evening when I went down to get the food for supper, I saw that the water had once again spread across the entire hallway (where the stairs from the main floor lead to the basement). As I got closer, I realized that the water covered almost the entirety of our basement - in almost an inch of water. In fact, it was so bad, that huge sections that hadn't been touch at all before were completely soaked!

This section was one of the shallowest, and even there, it's halfway up my feet.

Needless to say, Derek and I are concerned. We were planning on waterproofing the basement (preferably before spring), but this sudden appearance of SO MUCH WATER, when it has been fairly dry for the past few days, makes us wonder if there's a problem with our pipes? And if so, can we really afford to get a plumber in right now? Well, anyway, that's what happened today in our lives. Derek sent off an email to the lawyers that we processed the deal with, asking if there was any kind of clause or agreement that would protect us from this not-mentioned problem. So, while I'm not one to often ask for prayer, I'd love it if you folks could think of us while you're doing your daily devos, or supper prayers, or whatever. As first time homeowners Derek and I really aren't sure what to do about this issue that our quirky home is facing.

Monday, 15 October 2012

Week #2 of the October Dress Project here at Post Production Blues (you can see the outfits from week one and more info right here). It was definitely quite a week of coming up with outfits, but so far I haven't repeated any. I'm doing my best to keep them different and interesting for as long as possible. Seeing as I've made it half-way through the month without repeating, I'm guessing things will start to become a bit more difficult. But for me, it's definitely been pretty cool to see what I can come up with, and to use pieces of clothing that I almost never wore otherwise.

October 8th (super casual day at home. I was cold in the morning, so I ended up tucking the dress up under my sweater and throwing on pants):

October 9th (I wore a skirt and belt over my dress, along with tights - for warmth's sake!):

October 10th (I struggled a bit on this day to find an outfit I liked, but when I figured this out, it became one of my favourites so far! If I weren't trying to wear something different each day, I'd probably have worn this for the rest of the week - super comfy. Oh, and for anyone who noticed that my hair is down, I've decided to challenge myself to put it down once a week - even if that is way less convenient and easy):

October 11th (had a job "interview" in the morning, so I dressed up a bit - good impressions and all):

October 12th (class in the morning, and not a terribly interesting rest of the day. Sorry for the blur):

October 13th (Saturday - raking leaves and window shopping. I actually didn't start the day off by wearing the dress. I threw on jeans instead, because the lawn needed raking, but once I was done, on went the dress. It was a warmer day, so I got away with not wearing tights):

October 14th (Sunday and thus church. Decided to try something that I'd been considering for awhile, but wasn't sure if it would work. Turned out I really liked it - pencil skirt, and tied up button up over the dress):

So week number two is officially done, and I guess this morning means that week three has started! Can't believe we (being me and Lana) have made it this far. There are definitely some days when I really wish I didn't have to wear the dress (and Saturday, wearing jeans and a tank top for those first couple hours was fantastic!) but I think most days - and moments - I'm really appreciating being forced to wear a dress. I do enjoy wearing skirts and dresses, but it's so easy for me to just resort to jeans, so the self-imposed challenge is refreshing. I'm hoping that by the end of the month, I'll be much more eager to wear skirts/dresses on a regular basis!

Note: You can read more about the project in this blog post which also includes links to the Facebook group, and the blog of the creator of the October Dress Project.

This Saturday I went out to grab some things from the Dollarstore (some more fall things, a couple canvases - that you'll probably see in a soon-to-be-post - a few candles, etc.) but while I was at the mall, I stopped in at our local Liquidation World. Anyone who's been there knows that a lot of what they offer isn't very fantastic, but all of it's cheap, and if you look hard enough, you can find some pretty cool things.

For instance, they have these ramekins, in a cute burgandy. Perfect for fall - now that it's here!

Or take a look at these black and white patterned duvets. They could work with so many styles - from spunky teen girl room, to a much more mature adult room. The pattern is really nice, and because they're black and white they'll go with most colour schemes.

Then they had these Febreze scented candles that I almost got. I loved the colour combination, as well as the scents. And for $8 each candle works out to just over $3 - and you'd be getting yourself hours of delicious scents. Besides, now that's its fall (and soon to be winter) it's definitely time to start burning candles again. And since the colours are so light and spring-esque, they'll bring some much needed colour and warmth once the snow starts falling.

I found this guy in the Halloween section. I thought that the glittery-ness was kinda cool. I'm not one for much of the skulls/witches/blood and gore Halloween decoration, but I thought he might be nice along with some tapered candle sticks, and maybe a couple spooky sounding books, on a console table or a fireplace mantle. And if he's the only creepy decor you've got, you're hardly near creepy!

I really liked the shape of these glasses, they were simple and sleek - exactly what good glasses should be.

Also in the kitchen aisle, I came across this cute little set. Perfect for serving appetizers/dips to guests, and the four bowels come with a slate tray, which is definitely a hit in my book.

Then I found these plates, which are not only white ceramic, but also have a lovely, almost cable-knit pattern around the edges. Dishes like this automatically cosy up a table-setting. Christmas dinner? Yes please!

Then there were these fun jars. Can't you imagine filling one up with candy, or hot chocolate powder, putting a bow on it and calling it a gift? Love it when the gift is also the container.

Out of the kitchen stuff, and into the home decor, and we have this fantastic quatrefoil clock. I love that it's both a clock and a mirror, and that the clock itself looks nice. The construction of it looked pretty solid too. This would be great on a living room wall, or maybe a dining room? Or an office? So many possibilities.

Continuing on the clock theme, there was this guy that I almost fell in love with. I adore the Roman numerals, and the vintage globes going on inside the clock! As well as the super cute shape of the hands.

And finally, for clocks, there was this one - really quite similar to the last, but with a totally different pattern. Which is also fantastic. Anyone have experience with Liquidation World clocks? Do they actually keep time well? I'm pretty tempted to go back and grab that globe one!

Oh, but speaking of quatrefoil, check out this awesome quatrefoil mirror! If you don't want the clock, but love the shape, this is perfect.

Then there was this hurricane, which I thought was super cute. Perfect for a summer time out-door meal. Or maybe on the table of a breakfast nook! Put a candle in for night-time, or maybe throw in a few lemons and limes to keep the theme going.

And finally was this fantastic floor mirror! The thing was almost as tall as me. I'm sorry I couldn't take a better picture of it, but the frame had a gorgeous ceramic-type pattern on it. Definitely was calling my name to take it back home and throw it in our bedroom. It really was huge. Gotta love floor mirrors.

So, that was my little window shopping excursion that I enjoyed immensely. Hopefully some of the above items can inspire all of you guys! Any favourite items? I'm definitely loving that floor mirror. Might see if I can convince Derek that we need another one!

Note: This post is not sponsored in any way by Liquidation World. I just enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures of interesting things in order to garner inspiration. Besides, I love shopping! Especially the kind where you don't spend any money!